High-speed non-impact printers, e.g., laser printers, have become increasingly popular for the production of carbonless business forms. In the past, cut sheets of paper have been fed into these printers for the production of business forms. However, it is often preferable for continuous webs, e.g., paper rolls and folded paper webs in cartons, to be used as the feed stock for the printer. High speed non-impact and laser printers that accept continuous paper webs are available. Examples of continuous web feed printers include the IBM printer models 3800, 3900, and 3835, and the Siemens printer models 2200, 2300, 2140 and 2090. Accordingly, there is a need for non-impact printing production methods using business forms from continuous welds.
Modern business forms are composites of two or more sheets secured together by adhesives. The adhesives are placed on the continuous web stock before the form is printed or assembled. To produce a business form, the continuous web stock is imprinted with text and graphics by the printer. The printed webs are collated, automatically cut into sheets, and sealed together as a business form. Alternatively, the printed continuous webs can be collated, sealed and later cut into sheet business forms.
The adhesives on the continuous weld stock are generally pressure or heat activated. In proper operation, the adhesive is activated by a heat/press sealer when the printed webs are aligned into composite business forms. However, a persistent problem has arisen when the adhesive on one side of the web adheres to the adhesive on the opposite side of the web while the web is in a rolled stock. If the adhesive binds to the rolled or folded web, then the adhesive can tear or bind the web while the web is fed to the printer. The printing and entire form production process is interrupted when the web tears or binds. Thus, the advantages in high speed processing offered by printing from a continuous web can largely be lost because adhesives bind the web and stop production. Accordingly, a need exists for a continuous web that can be fed to a non-impact printer without tearing or binding because of adhesives applied to the web.
It is especially difficult to avoid tearing and binding in webs where the adhesive is applied to the front and back sides of the web. The adhesive is applied to the front and back of the webs that are ultimately registered between two or more other webs. These middle webs often have carbonless copy material on the front and back, i.e., CFB (coated front and back), of the web. When a CFB web is rolled or folded before printing, the adhesive on the front adheres to the adhesive on the back side of the web. The combined adhesion of the front and back is great enough to tear the web and prevent the web from feeding smoothly into the printer.
A particularly vexing problem arises when adhesives are applied across the width of the web, either perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the web or diagonally to the web axis. When the adhesive strips extend across the web, it is impossible to align the front and back adhesive strips so that they do not overlap when in the web roll. In contrast, adhesive strips parallel to the edge of the web and extending longitudinally with the web can be staggered to not overlap when the web is in a roll. Prior to the present invention, there were no known methods for applying adhesive strips laterally across the front and back of rolled webs such that the strips do not overlap when the web is rolled.
The present invention provides an arrangement and method for producing composite business forms from rolled continuous webs so that the adhesives across the width of the web do not tear or bind the web. In particular, the adhesive strips across the width of the web are segmented. The segmented strip on the front of the web does not overlie the segmented strip on the back of the web. Moreover, the segmentation of the strips on the front and back of the web are uniform for the entire web. Thus, when the web is rolled the adhesive strips on the front do not touch the adhesives on the back. This segmentation of the adhesive strips ensures that the adhesive from the front of the web does not directly overlie and adhere to the adhesive on the back of the web. In this arrangement, nowhere in the rolled web is one adhesive strip in direct contact with another adhesive strip. Accordingly, the propensity of the web to tear and bind is greatly diminished because two adhesive strips are not adhering to one another in the roll.
In an alternative embodiment, adhesive strips across the width of the CFB web are replaced by a line of holes. Since the rolled CFB web no longer has lateral adhesive strips, the likelihood of the web tearing or binding is greatly diminished over that for webs having adhesive strips. Instead of having adhesive strips, these CFB webs include perforated strips across the width of the web. When the CFB web is aligned between other webs, the perforated strips of the CFB web aligned with adhesive strips of the adjacent webs. The adhesive strips from the adjacent webs adhere through the holes in the middle CFB web.
In summary, the present invention includes an assembly of webs for constructing a carbonless multipart business forms being feed into a non-impact printer, said webs comprising: (1) a CB web having a plurality of glue strips extending laterally across at least a portion of the back of said CB web; (2) a CFB web having a plurality of segmented glue strips extending laterally across at least a portion of the back and front of the CFB web, the segmented glue strips on the front of the CFB web laterally staggered from the segmented glue strips on the back of the CFB web, the segmented glue strips on the front of the CFB web adhering to and aligned with corresponding glue strips on the CB web when the CFB web and CB web are registered; and (3) a CF web having a plurality of glue strips extending laterally across at least a portion of the front of the CF web, the glue strips on the CF web adhering to and aligned with corresponding segmented glue strips on the back of the CFB web when the CFB web and CF web are registered.
In another embodiment, the invention includes an assembly of webs for constructing a carbonless multipart business forms being feed into a non-impact printer, the webs comprising: (1) a CB weld having a plurality of glue strips extending laterally across at least a portion of the back of the CB web; (2) a CFB web having a plurality of holes extending laterally across at least a portion of the CFB web and a perforated tear line extending laterally across the CFB web, the tear resistance of the CFB web along the tear line being substantially less than the tear resistance of the CFB web along the holes, the holes aligned with the glue strip when the CFB web and CB web are registered together; and (3) a CF web having a plurality of glue strips extending laterally across at least a portion of the front of the CF web, the glue strips aligned with corresponding holes in the CFB web when the CFB web and CF web are registered, and the glue strips on the CF web adhering with corresponding glue strips on the CB web through the holes when the CB web, the CFB web and the CF web are registered together.